YMCA Ignite, the online learning platform of YMCA of Greater Toronto, is adding a food handler certification course.
YMCA is preparing the course for Ontario accreditation, which means the final exam has to be proctored: the learner's identity is checked, the session is monitored by webcam, and the result is reviewed before a certificate is issued.
YMCA chose Integrity Advocate for proctoring because it runs inside the Ignite course page, so learners won't need to install software or go to another website.
Core dna is connecting Integrity Advocate to Ignite, which runs on Core dna's LMS with eCommerce, so the exam, the review and the certificate work as one flow, with the certificate held until the review comes back valid.
The integration is in build as of October 2026. This story covers how it is designed, and will be updated with results once the course is live.
The challenge
Today, Ignite issues a certificate the moment a course reports a pass. That suits a job search workshop or a financial literacy course. A credential that counts toward accreditation is different: YMCA has to be able to show who sat the exam and that they followed the exam rules.
YMCA also wanted proctoring that would not ask learners to download software or move to an external website to sit the exam, and wanted Ignite, not the proctoring provider, to stay in control of when a certificate is issued.
What YMCA needed
- Webcam monitoring and photo ID checks on the final exam.
- An instructions screen before the exam that YMCA can edit without a developer.
- No certificate until the proctoring review is complete and valid.
- A way for YMCA staff to review flagged sessions and overrule a result.
- A five-year certificate expiry, and a retake policy with a limit on attempts.
- Exam scores and integrity outcomes recorded for reporting.
How online exam proctoring will work on Ignite
Before the exam. A proctored course will show an instructions screen on the Ignite exam page: what the exam covers, the webcam and photo ID requirements, the exam rules and what to expect from Integrity Advocate. The wording is a CMS field, so YMCA can change it without re-exporting the SCORM course. Courses without proctoring stay as they are.
Starting the exam. Clicking Start Exam loads Integrity Advocate with the learner's details from their Ignite login, so they type nothing. The exam stays locked until Integrity Advocate confirms identity verification and monitoring are live. If the camera is blocked or setup is incomplete, the learner sees a clear message, a retry option and Integrity Advocate's 24/7 learner support contact.
Ending the session. Submitting the exam, or saving and exiting, ends the proctoring session, submits it for review and releases the camera.
The result. A pass on a proctored course records the score and marks the integrity check as pending. Integrity Advocate reviews the session, normally within 24 hours, and sends the verdict back to Ignite. A valid verdict releases the certificate with its pass date and five-year expiry and sends the completion email. Any other verdict holds the certificate, alerts YMCA's administrators and offers the learner the next step under the retake policy.
Reviews and overrides. YMCA reviewers will use Integrity Advocate's review widget on a hidden page in Ignite that only members of an administrator group can open. When a reviewer overrules a result, Ignite picks up the change and releases the certificate with no manual step.
Want to see how it works?
Book a call with Core dna. We'll show you how proctoring, certificate release and expiry fit together in one LMS, and how that would work for your credentials.
Security and reliability
Verdicts that can't be forged. Integrity Advocate signs every message it sends to Ignite, and Ignite checks the signature before it accepts a verdict. Duplicate messages are ignored, so a learner never receives two certificates, and the verdict and the exam score can arrive in either order.
A safety net for lost messages. A scheduled job asks Integrity Advocate directly for the status of any result still pending after a set time, and of held results an administrator may have since overruled.
Keys kept on the server. Integrity Advocate credentials sit in the site's environment configuration, with separate sandbox and production values, and never appear in page source. Camera access is allowed on course pages only.
Certificates, expiry and retakes
Five-year expiry. The expiry date is calculated from the pass date, printed on the certificate PDF and shown next to the certificate in the learner's account, which shows an expired state once the date passes.
Attempts per course. Each proctored course has a maximum number of attempts included with the purchase, and Ignite checks a learner's attempts against it before offering Start Exam. YMCA decides whether an upheld violation uses up an attempt, and administrators can reset an attempt after a technical failure or grant extra attempts case by case.
Clear status for learners. The dashboard shows when a result is under review, under administrator review or open for a retake, and emails cover submission, the review outcome and retakes. Once a learner has passed with a valid result, the exam page shows a completed state with a link to the certificate.
For more on running courses, commerce and certificates on one platform, see the LMS, eCommerce and CMS platform page.
What comes next
The food handler course goes live once it has Ontario approval. After launch, this story will be updated with results: how many proctored exams learners take, how many are valid on first review, and how long learners wait between submitting an exam and receiving their certificate.
Read the main website story: how YMCA of Greater Toronto took online registrations from 1,500 in a day to 8,000.
